A great adventure story? We’re sorry, but it just never begins on your couch. Yet, that’s where most of us have been stuck for more than a year, putting plans on hold and leaving us to dream about safe and smart travel when normal comes back around. Maybe that means reconnecting with family and friends or touching down in locales in the US and abroad that populate your personal bucket list and feed your sense of adventure.
For singer/songwriter Sofia Valdés, it’s those things and a chance to stoke creativity through the achingly missed act of meeting people as you explore their home cities and countries learning just a little bit about them in the process of being inspired. As Valdés says in the first episode of our new Creator Connections video series (made in partnership with Delta Air Lines), “There’s something magical about being able to find a home in people, so wherever you are, you feel at home.”
That’s the power of travel and exploration, essentially — a charge that comes from new experiences, new cultures, new destinations, new people, and a new perspective that promotes a larger, more informed view of the world. Even if you’re going somewhere familiar or just looking to relax, it’s going to change you for the better. Because it’s still a connection (to people, places, and things), and it’s what we’ve all been missing most.
Check out Sofia’s story (above) to learn more about how she finds a home and a community wherever she travels and how Delta is helping her reconnect with her career and musical life in this episode of Creator Connections.
While it’s been scarce on the music side of things for Travis Scott lately, the rapper has proven himself to be the king of brand partnerships over the past twelve months. He’s teamed up with the likes of McDonald’s, PlayStation, Fortnite, and more to deliver merchandise and content that his fans rushed to get their hands on. Scott looks to continue that streak as he joined forces with marijuana cultivator Connected Cannabis to launch his very own cannabis line, Cactus Farms. The strains are already available in some dispensaries in a few states across the country.
For those who are interested in trying out the Cactus Farms line, they’ll have to stop by dispensaries that stock Connected Cannabis products in California or Harvest dispensaries in Arizona. According to Connected Cannabis, the first strain from Travis’ Cactus Farms line is a hybrid that was hand-picked by the rapper himself. It’s labeled as an “Indica-leaning strain” that features a “dense, purple bud that releases a pungent, funky-sweet gas aroma rounded out by a unique berry twist,” according to NME.
The news comes after a report revealed Travis and Meek Mill had to separate from each other following a verbal altercation at a Fourth Of July event earlier this month. The cause of the fight is still unknown at the moment, but thankfully, the two rappers walked away from each other before things turned physical.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Electronic artist Dawn Richard is one of those creators who seems to never rest. A former member of Danity Kane, the last decade saw Dawn drop four celebrated albums, appear in several films, guest on other artists’ albums, become a curator at Adult Swim, and open up her own successful vegan food truck in New Orleans, Papa Ted’s. When we entered a new decade, no one would’ve blamed the woman for resting on her laurels.
But we all knew that wasn’t happening, right? This year brought Richard’s latest — and greatest — album to date, Second Line, which rightfully debuted at #1 on the iTunes Electronic charts when it released a few months back. The nocturnal, pulsing rhythms throughout the whole run of Second Line harken back to the early days of techno, house, and the electronic genres that Black producers pioneered in the late ’70s and early ’80s, genres that would go on to define the sound and feel of modern music. In that sense, Second Line is both nostalgic and contemporary, with hints of futurism via the album’s imagery and production that point to where music might be in another five to ten years.
As the pandemic continues to wane, we hit up Dawn for a travel guide. We told her she could pick anyplace to focus on that she wanted and she hit us back with a guide to her five favorite Black-owned art spaces in Los Angeles. Before you jump into the guide, be sure to give Second Line a spin and watch the animated video for “Voodoo (Intermission)” below.
The inspiration I get walking into this place moves me. When I want to sketch, I always go there to get inspired. There is so much history in this place; it’s one of the popular Black Museums in Los Angeles. This was the first museum I visited when I moved to LA… I was just blown away.
Another fun visual is the interior design of the museum; I love the way the museum is designed and mapped. The flow feels good. I know most people wouldn’t look at that but I do, lol!
As soon as you walk into this Gallery you can feel its pulse. It’s small, boutique even. And that’s part of its charm. I’m someone who prefers light crowds and I feel like I can admire the art in such a better way at a gallery like this. Los Angeles can be massive, so finding a small gem that feels like it’s all for you is perfection.
I recommend all creatives check this slice of heaven out.
I love the outreach that this museum does for artists in the community. Coming from New Orleans, community outreach was crucial for artists like me who had limited resources. I think the appeal of this museum for me is at any given time you can find local artists being supported or highlighted.
Not many museums showcase local talent like this space.
A lot of incredible artists can be found here! I try to go on Wednesdays because I find new intriguing artists every time. I like that it was founded by a collective of creatives, which makes it a haven for people like me. You get a sense of local support and community. When I was recording my album Goldenheart, I would come to the Mart for artistic stimulation.
I love this space because they celebrate and showcase Haitian, Cuban, and contemporary ethnic art. Fabius, who was born in Port-au-Prince, came to the US when she was eight years old and runs the space along with her partner, Giacomini, a French American sculptor and artist. Being of Haitian decent it was something that felt close to home. Six years ago, I discovered my Haitian culture and have been learning and delving into my heritage ever since.
This modern space shows the best of Haitian art and its artists. I learn new visual stories every time I visit, and feel closer to Haiti artistically when I visit. I grab a cup of coffee and just experience the beauty!
The children of well-respected hip-hop legends are opening up a pizzeria in honor of their late fathers. T’yanna Wallace and Tyra Myricks, daughters of, respetively, The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay Master Jay, will open Juicy Pizza in Los Angeles this weekend. The new shop will serve New York-style pizza for residents of the West Coast city starting on Saturday, June 12. The restaurant is of course named after Biggie’s 1994 hit song “Juicy.”
In an Instagram post she shared back in February, Myricks explained, “I realized that L.A. doesn’t have good NY-style pizza, so instead of going on an endless hunt for some, I decided to make some!” Once she decided a New York-style pizzeria was needed in Los Angeles, Myricks reached out to Wallace about the idea, as the two had been friends for quite some time. “The more I thought about how to bring that New York theme to Los Angeles, I felt, ‘Who represents New York more than Biggie Smalls?’” Myricks told Business Insider.
Juicy Pizza sports a menu that includes cheese and pepperoni pizza, oxtail, beef and broccoli, jerk chicken, and chopped cheese egg rolls. The Los Angeles wing of food publication Eater adds that the pizzeria honors New York City with “subway car details and bodega vibes.” It should be noted that when the restaurant opens on June 12 it will be “with dinner hours only.”
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are still enjoying the success of their sole Silk Sonic single “Leave The Door Open”: The song recently returned to No. 1 on the charts for a second week, and on the latest Billboard Hot 100, it’s still in the top 5. Still, the song was released three months ago now and fans are craving more from the duo. Well, today, they’ve gotten more, albeit in a form they likely weren’t expecting: Mars and .Paak have collaborated on a new jingle for SelvaRey Rum, a rum brand that Mars co-owns.
The duo also got James Fauntleroy on the track, which was produced by “Leave The Door Open” producer Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II. As would be expected from a commercial jingle, it’s a brief and jaunty tune, although it ends with some smooth, Silk Sonic-style soul.
Mars says in a statement, “Rum is really synonymous with joy. Anyone holding a good rum cocktail is exactly where they want to be. That’s what I wanted people to feel with this campaign. And SelvaRey Coconut delivers the ultimate drink every time. It’s hands down the best coconut rum you’ve ever tasted. Who wouldn’t be happy with a SelvaRey Piña Colada in their hand?”
He also wrote on social media, “My friends and I are Co Owners of this delicious rum. Us being all musicians it’s only right that we put together the official jingle for @selvareyrum .This was fun!”
Check out the jingle above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In 2019, Drake announced the launch of his cannabis company, More Life Growth Company. Today, a little over 18 months since, Bloomberg reports that More Life’s partnership with Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth Corp. to distribute in global markets has ended. Canopy filed to terminate the partnership in March this year. The company reportedly “derecognized” almost C$33.7 million in remaining minimum royalty obligations to More Life. Although both parties expressed excitement at the partnership in 2019, somewhere in the past year, it would appear those feelings cooled.
BlogTO, a free afternoon newspaper in Toronto, reported that Canopy’s CEO David Klein expressed discontent with the lack of attention to the brand from Drake, who was splitting his time between recording his new album Certified Lover Boy and running a pro-am basketball tournament out of his house (which may have resulted in him reinjuring his knee, causing the CLB release to be pushed back). “[More Life] has not been progressing as originally intended and we’re still working on details to determine where it goes… [and] it may be something that can’t get to where we all want it to go,” Klein was quoted in BNN Bloomberg.
Klein also wasn’t impressed with More Life’s business plan, noting that, “In many regards, at its essence, it’s almost a real estate play where More Life is going to do a lot of activity on cannabis destinations. I don’t know if that still fits anybody’s way of thinking, at least in the COVID world.” He would know: Canopy is also the business partner for both Seth Rogen and Snoop Dogg‘s weed brands. Meanwhile, the market gets more and more crowded by the day, with Jay-Z, G-Eazy, Ice Cube, and Russ all jumping in the marijuana game in the past few months. Drake’s property was apparently a low enough priority without planning to compete in destination spots, which would have looked cool, but likely struggled to sell. This leaves Drake on the outside looking in for now, as many of his peers and contemporaries look to cash in on the lucrative cash crop.
Action Bronson may have lost 140 pounds since last year, but he’s still got that unmistakable Action grin. It comes paired with a “smiling eyes” brand of warmth that’ll make you feel like you’ve known the guy for years. His vibe has always been to live loud. Smoke what you want, eat what you want, do what you want, and give yourself over completely to life’s pleasures. It’s part of what makes his personality so infectious and why people flock to catch his show F*ck That’s Delicious, currently airing on YouTube, which is literally just about Action eating at the places he likes to eat (now with more kettlebell squats!).
But if you were worried that the new, healthier Action Bronson might live like a monk, fear not. He’s still the same dude with the same passion for food and life. He just felt like the fast life was catching up to him and he needed an adjustment.
“I put it out there for people to be free and fat and this and that, and eat what you like,” he says. “But unfortunately, some people have genetics like me where it just fucking sticks to your ass. I wanted to make amends… I realized that I was a fuckhead and I should stop doing these things and change shit up.”
That realization came while the multi-hyphenate was working on his new self-help book, Fuck It I’ll Start Tomorrow, which Action admits began as an attempt to get a check before morphing into a genuine journey of self-examination. We linked up last week over Zoom to talk about writing the book, getting fit, eating plant-based, and how it will all affect Fuck That’s Delicious going forward.
***
Let’s talk a bit about your new book Fuck It I’ll Start Tomorrow. It’s positioned as a self-help book — what kind of lessons do you teach people in the book?
Deceit, lying, lying to yourself, coming to the realization that you’ve lied to yourself and you’ve lied to everybody else… you know all kinds of things. It’s experience-based, a lot of people can relate to some of the things I’m saying, but I wrote it with deceit in my mind. When I wrote the book I had no intention of putting my all into it, which is unfortunate because I only do things that I put my all into. This I did strictly because it was a check and a way to get to another cookbook, which I really wanted to do. I didn’t want to do a fucking self-help book because “I don’t fucking give a shit,” that was my attitude.
The bottom line is, this book was written with bad intentions but somehow it turned a mirror on me and I realized that I was a fuckhead and I should stop doing these things and change shit up. Never do anything that you don’t put your all into and this book taught me a lesson.
The book ended at the pandemic, it was a prequel to all the change that’s happened now, but it was a catalyst. The book was a catalyst unknowingly, I hated every second of it, you could ask Rachel Wharton the woman who wrote the book with me, James Beard award winner, two times New York best-selling author. She went through hell with me to do this shit, I feel terrible. At one point I called them up and was like “Yo, I’ll give you the money back I’m not fucking doing this.” It was a shit show, but I’m just glad everything worked out.
In the book, you could feel my pain and my joy.
This year has been a definite journey, you’ve totally changed your life and changed the way you eat. What has impacted you the most about transforming, not just the way you look physically, but your diet, which was originally built around excess?
I’ve always been able to eat right, I actually went to school and got a 100 in nutrition, I know what we’re supposed to eat. I know what we need to eat to be healthy, I know what not to eat, I know not to eat 10 desserts at one time, but I’m an addict.
You have to break through that addiction, but the mind is stronger than anything and I feel like my mind is ironclad. 140 pounds bro. That’s not easy, I was disgusted I had 140 to lose, I still got to lose another 20 to 30, it’s unreal. At least I’m at a normal weight now, before I was so abnormal, it was disgusting.
I caught some of the new episodes of Fuck That’s Delicious, and I noticed just because you’ve gotten healthy, you haven’t gotten soft, you’re rocking the kettle ball to the pizza joint, you’re still as passionate about food as you’ve always been. That’s particularly inspiring because you’ve changed your whole life around but you haven’t given up the joy, and I think that’s an important message to share with people. What was your thinking going into the new season?
My thinking going into it was pretty much trying to mix my new lifestyle with the show. Every time we do Fuck That’s Delicious, all this shit was made up because this is my life. It was chronicling my life with the homies, and that was it, we never put any stage shit on, it’s all just one take, put a camera on and we just lived. So I just put the camera on and lived again, and this is just the way I’m living now so we’re capturing this.
For so long, it’s been just “blast yourself with 45 meals a day and desserts. It’s okay, just laugh, drink your face off, and smoke your life away.” Yeah, cool. There comes a point where it catches up and it caught up heavy to me. I had to chill out but the love of food is always going to be there. It doesn’t mean you have to stop eating, it just means you have to stop being an animal.
You gotta know when to hold them and you gotta know when to fold them. I learned when to fold them. Before, I didn’t know how to fold them.
Right now you’ve got a partnership happening with Field Roast and their show Make Taste Happen, what should we expect out of that partnership?
Big things man, it’s exciting, I love doing things where it’s something I use organically and it’s not just some bullshit. I was once a little bit intimidated by food that was mimicking real food but is made with plants, but these things, they’ve made in an approachable way. I understand sausage, I understand the way it is, I understand what’s going on in the world now.
It’s innovative and delicious and healthy. It’s this canvas that allows you to make unbelievable things, not just from a taste angle alone. It allows you to imagine and take the mind places you’ve been in the past — some real nostalgia stuff.
What makes Field Roast different? Why partner with them?
Just in my own opinion, I’ve tried plant-based sausage and plant-based burgers, and the texture usually isn’t there. It’s grainy or the flavor is off. There are only a couple of brands that seem like they’re doing the right thing, and in my estimation, Field Roast has been the best product I’ve tried so far. It’s very versatile, it browns up the way it should, it tastes amazing, it’s a vehicle for all kinds of flavors.
If you just have a couple of items in your pantry it’s really all you need — you can create masterpieces.
What are some of your favorite things to prepare? You sent me a photo of you doing apple sausage, broccoli, onions — what are we cooking here?
See that’s a classic Italian dish, I believe it’s a Roman dish, when you do the sausage with the orecchiette, the little ear pasta, with the broccoli. I decided that I’m going to mimic a dish that I have and I love and make it ethnic as well and take you around the world and give you flavors that go “mmm.”
I made this unbelieved pistachio pesto [full recipe here] to top it with, you could eat it every day. Use a little bit of Sambal. People submitted some items that I should be using and they tried to trick me on some Chopped stuff but I just created a masterpiece.
Field Roast
What’s your secret to a plant-based meal?
Not treating it as if it’s something different. You don’t put white gloves on like “ooh its plant-based” you just hit it with hard flavor like you normally would. It’s all about flavor, good olive oil, good products, it’s still all about the products. Make sure you keep it nice and fresh and creative.
Jaden Smith — who is also known mononymously as “Jaden” — is set to expand his philanthropic food truck operation into a full-blown restaurant, according to Variety (scroll down a bit). The restaurant, called I Love You, builds on the efforts he made to help feed homeless people on Los Angeles’ Skid Row two years ago with his I Love You food truck. In order for the concept to work, Jaden has figured out an unusual strategy to help offset costs: Those who can pay will pay more to “pay for the person behind you.”
While the report sports meager details — we don’t yet know when or where I Love You restaurant will open — it’s a pretty safe bet he’ll be able to follow through on his plans. Last year, he partnered with Lyft to provide free rides to people in communities like Flint, Michigan so that they have access to clean water, grocery stores, and work opportunities. He also has a boxed water initiative aimed at encouraging people to use more environmentally friendly methods of drinking portable water than plastic bottles.
Jaden is coming off a successful 2020 that saw the well-received release of his Cool Tape Vol. 3 and Jaden’s participation in the soundtrack from the Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game.
If it seems like every week a new celebrity launches a weed brand, that’s because… every… week… a new celebrity… launches… a… weed brand. For the most part, these entries into an increasingly crowded marketplace are pretty forgettable. But occasionally — as with the case of Jay-Z’s Monogram and Seth Rogen’s Houseplant — the right team manages to knock it out of the park, earning permanent shelf space at your local dispensary.
I’m pleased to say that FlowerShop — a new brand launched by rapper and producer G-Eazy, along with co-founders and fellow Bay Area boys Isaac Muwaswes and Gabe Garcia — is one of those select few. But FlowerShop isn’t just a cannabis label. It’s also a wellness company, with a long list of products on deck. Its first drop delivers rolling papers, lighters, ashtrays, and three glass-tipped pre-roll joint packs, called Bouquetpacks. A 1/8th flower jar and “cannabis juice” are coming soon.
The Bouquetpacks offer three different mood-focused strains — dubbed Comfort, Smile, and Joy — each packed in reusable plastic tubes and sporting a glass-filter tip for better handling and flavor. After smoking the Comfort strain, I spoke with Muwaswes, Garcia, and G-Eazy himself about the origins of the brand, their own relationships to cannabis, and why joints will always feel special.
But first, let’s break down the weed.
The Packaging
Dane Rivera
Right out of the gate, the first interesting thing about FlowerShop is the brand’s design aesthetic. The Bouquetpack’s matte flip-top box features a magnetic top, and four pre-rolled single flower joints packed in resealable plastic tubes with glass filter tips. At four joints per pack and a retail price of $50, you’re looking at a cost of $12.50 per joint.
Dane Rivera
Since an eighth of Panacea Farms Purple Double Deja Vu will cost you about $60 before taxes, this pack has pretty good value for what you get, it’s a lot better than Monogram’s $60 hand-roll, for example, and the weed is of a much higher quality.
A fifth joint would’ve really set this up as something special though. The packaging is playful and colorful, but we would’ve preferred just a little bit more information for the consumer.
One of the things that first struck me about FlowerShop’s pre-roll pack was just how fragrant it smelled after I cut open the sealed plastic envelope it came packaged in. Once the scissors pierced the plastic I was instantly greeted by a wave of floral and slightly minty smells, with a slight pepper edge that tickles the nose. The joint itself is incredibly well packed, just rolling it through my fingers showed a consistent and dense pack that led to a lengthy smoke session with thick clouds of milky intoxicating smoke.
Again, FlowerShop’s attention to detail and design is at the forefront here. Each glass filter utilizes blue-colored glass — fitting with the color scheme. Does that have any effect on how high you get? Absolutely not, but it certainly has an effect on the experience. Smoking FlowerShop’s joints feels like you’re enjoying something special, it’s practically begging to be shared just so you can pass it around as a conversation piece.
Of course, cool filters would feel like a gimmick if the high didn’t deliver. It does. This will be a fun joint to pass between friends when we’re past Covid, but right now I’m not sharing with anyone. Which resulted in me getting — to borrow a Bay Area phrase — hella high.
Comfort is made using Panacea Farm’s Purple Double Deja Vu and the high comes on incredibly quickly here. Well before you make your way through the joint, a pleasing buzz took over me — beginning in the center of the forehead before melting down in radiating waves of euphoric bliss through the rest of my body. Real talk: I did not expect a celebrity-fronted weed brand to hit this hard. FlowerShop chose well by linking up with Panacea Farm for this one and opting for a single-sourced full flower joint (rather than a blend of shake) led to a better tasting, less harsh product.
I broke up one of my spare pre-rolls (which I regret) to get a look inside — Comfort has a great medium-coarse grind and the bud is fresh and still slightly sticky.
Dane Rivera
Flavor-wise, Comfort had floral notes with a heavy gas flavor and a peppery, slightly melon aftertaste. The smoke was remarkably smooth which is rare in pre-packaged joints, resulting in pleasingly smooth drags that didn’t lead to a single cough during my whole experience.
My only gripe is that calling the strain “Comfort” is a bit misleading, they might as well call it “KO” — smoking a full joint solo launched me beyond couch lock and straight into a nap. I had no plans on taking a nap, I wasn’t even tired, so this is definitely not something to mess with if you’ve got plans.
The Bottom Line
Smooth smoke with earthy flavors of cracked pepper and subtle melon and mint, which results in a body-tingling euphoric high designed to knock you out.
The Interview
FlowerShop
You’re all Bay Area kids, can you speak to the cannabis scene in the Bay Area while you were growing up. I know it’s always been a big part of the culture.
Muwaswes: I was born and raised in San Francisco, not too far from Haight Ashbury, so some of my early memories of being exposed to weed was going down to Haight Ashbury with my friends to kick it. As a young kid you’re kind of exposed to this narrative around the history and the demonization of cannabis, but as I kind of got into it in middle school going to high school you start to make your own assumptions.
But even then, pretty early on in high school, I started to hear about all these medicinal uses for it and hearing about the groundswell that was happening surround Prop 215. It was really being looked at as a medicine, and I’ve come across friends of my parents who were using it as a medicine as well, so pretty early on I started to see it as “oh this is something we in the Bay Area kind of have a different view upon and are really progressive on” and that intertwined with the cultural aspect, growing up listening to hip-hop, being into all things hip-hop, music, fashion — it was intertwined in those subcultures.
Whatever group of friends I had — whether it was my athlete friends, my friends into music, the friends into fashion — that was one thing we all shared. One experience that connected us all was smoking.
I know the brand takes a heavily sensory approach to cannabis, that’s right on the packaging. What’s the thinking behind positioning the brand this way and how does it differ from other celebrity-fronted brands that are springing up in the cannabis space?
Muwaswes: When we built Flower Shop we really built it as a wellness company as a whole, I think we always looked at cannabis as one aspect or one category of what we’re trying to do from the perspective of wellness. For us, we tried to really define what wellness means to us. One big realization we had was that it’s not one thing, it’s not singular, it’s more about the journey than the destination
Through that, we started to define how we can take people through that journey, and what we do to get on that journey. It’s about inspiring our senses, whether it’s the music we listen to, the candle we burn that smells a certain way, whether it’s the lighting in the room that makes us feel a certain way and opens up our mood to certain elements or experiences, we always knew it tied back to one or many of our senses and we’re already in that mindset for a lot of the other things we were doing previous to FlowerShop. Whether it was in the design world with Gabe or the music world with G, it’s about bringing all of that together in a retailer experience.
That was kind of the genesis of sensory care, and then we started to apply that to everything we were doing from product to packaging to messaging to content.
G Eazy: To jump in, from my perspective as a musician, music can be a healing agent. Similar to flower, it can be something that brings people together, people who share this commonality come together for this shared experience. But as a musician I have a wide array of influences and taste in music, I can deliver “No Limit” but then I can do “Everything Will Be OK,” that wide offering and understanding of mood and emotions are important in anything you offer because you don’t just have one customer, and each customer doesn’t have just one mindset and mood.
We wanted to find what resonates at different times of the day or different times in your life, and wanting to reach people on a level of emotion and feeling, similar to the way music would.
FlowerShop
I wanted to ask you specifically about your smoking habits G, are you smoking a bowl before you hit the studio, something you do after to unwind, what’s your creative relationship with the plant?
G-Eazy: There is pretty much a constant burn in the studio. Atmosphere is huge in the creative process, that comes down to lighting, how cold I like it, the people I want and don’t want in the studio, and that comes down to what I’m drinking and smoking. With smoking, it’s not a requirement. It’s not needed to unlock creativity, but nonetheless, it’s something that loosens you up and makes you feel better and makes you feel joy or relaxation, that can only open you up and enable more flow of stream of consciousness.
Garcia: To add to that we started thinking about whether cannabis a creative performance enhancer? We like the idea, we can’t go shout it off the mountaintops, but for us, we like that conceptually and believe it. But to G’s point, it’s not a reliance.
FlowerShop
G what’s your preferred smoking method and why did you guys start with the BouquetPack over a flower jar?
G-Eazy: Joints and blunts. It’s what I grew up smoking. Every day in high school coming home from work, I’d get home around midnight or 1 AM and I’d roll up a personal blunt and smoke it in the backyard while my mom was asleep, just to be able to wind down and decompress and get ready for school the next morning. It was just culturally what I grew up doing.
Garcia: That’s the reason we’re excited to share the bouquet pack and included the glass tip pre-rolls, that’s our attempt to elevate what is standard.
Where is the product sourced from?
Muwaswes: Sourcing wise we have a number of really good relationships with cultivators throughout the entire state of California. A lot of the key growers out here we have partnerships with and what we’re doing right now is these drops or deliveries with individual strains and growers. The one you have right now, we partnered with Panacea Farms for — a craft grower under the NorCal banner. We’re doing a number of different things with brands, growers, and cultivators, long term we are going to be having our own genetics out there, but for the time being, we’re trying to find the best of the best that we want to work with that also understand our vision and understand what we’re trying to do from a sensory care perspective with these products.
FlowerShop
What brought you to the cannabis business? Your backgrounds are comfortably in design and music, not in the cannabis industry.
Garcia: It came to us really, growing up in the Bay Area and how prominent it is it was probably inevitable. It came through a design project at first. We’ve been in the creative design space for a long time.
We started getting inbound requests from the cannabis end, that’s how it initially started to come to us, and we entertained one specific deal and that’s where it really started. As we got into it and did the research, we wanted to find our foothold and what felt authentic to us to enter the space and it was through design, through packaging through a vision, but as we got into it, we started asking ourselves deeper questions.
This is a two-and-a-half-year project in the making and we’re really proud of it and excited to share it with the world.
What’s special about FlowerShop, what sets it apart from other brands?
Garcia: It’s all in our packaging! We really did our best to make it as recyclable and eco-conscious as possible. We tried to make everything reusable — or unique enough to make people want to reuse it. The tubes the pre-rolls come in, our incense sticks are coming in those, it’s also a tube you can use to clean your glass tips and reuse them, same thing for the box itself.
Our Bud Vase, which will be dropping in 90 days, has a jar that’s able to be reused. With all of our packaging, we’ve thought about how we can inspire people to reuse it and reapply it to something else. The vase is food grade, it can be washed in the dishwasher, it can be used to store yogurt —
G-Eazy: As a shot glass!
Garcia: You know it!
Muwaswes: We were just as focused on what was going into the packaging as who we are sourcing weed from. Using a single strain indoor for our prerolls, not using shake, grinding the best of the best, being meticulous about the grind and the coarseness, consistency on the burn and smoke, even on the sourcing of the paper!
Lorde is back! Well, she’s back reviewing onion rings, at least, and we’re here for it. In her first onion ring review of 2021, the world’s most famous onion ring aficionado reviewed the Pickled Onion Rings at Auckland’s Hotel Ponsonby, which serves elevated English pub fare.
We’re talking PICKLED onion rings which is a first for this reviewer. I totally vibe the concept — used to eat pickled onions out of the jar as a youngster — however I think if you’re gonna go there, go there, and let acidity rather than sweetness dominate. Absolutely sensational batter, perhaps the best I’ve tried. 4/5 overall ringsperience.
This is a solid review and will surely lead to a ring boom at Hotel Ponsonby. It was also glowing enough to motivate us to break out the ol’ wok and try these rings for ourselves (since we’re probably not going to be in Auckland anytime soon).
To master this recipe, I looked into New Zealand pickled onion culture (yes, that’s a thing). There’s actually a fair number of recipes for pickled onions throughout New Zealand’s food media outlets. The thing is, I don’t really have a week to let something pickle in a dark cupboard. So I took my cues from New Zealander’s recipes and adapted them to make it doable in about an hour with a sous vide.
I’ve used my sous vide to make a lot of pickles (root veg, eggs, fish, etc.) in the past and it really only takes about an hour to have a fully-brined pickle. For this recipe, that sped-up process will do nicely.
Lastly, I really focused on the batter. I knew it had to be something “sensational” for Lorde to give it full marks. So I made sure I was devising something that’d have a beautifully crunchy exterior while still providing a softer interior, leading to the briny and savory pickled onion inside. That’s enough preamble, let’s get into the recipe!
A quick note on the brine. This is where I’m drawing acidity from. There’s a low amount of salt and sugar that’ll give you that “briny” edge of a pickle. Then the addition of apple cider vinegar will bring that mild pH acidic vibe to the whole thing.
Otherwise, you do you on the pickle brine spices. If you want it spicier, add more chilis. Mix and match with seeds and barks. Overall, this is a mild pickle brine with a classic edge that leans towards the New Zealand-centric pickle recipes I found online.
Zach Johnston
Ring batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 bottle or can of pilsner (more as needed)
2 egg yolks
Large pinch of salt
White pepper
Other:
Two yellow onions
Neutral oil
Aioli
Salt
Another quick note: As you can see in the image below, I’ve removed the inner skins between the layers of the onion. This is crucial for a bite-able onion ring. If you’ve ever had an onion ring that immediately slid out of the batter, it was because of that slippery film that’s between every layer. It takes a little extra time but is as easy as simply pulling the skin off after you’ve made your rings.
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Large Zip-lock bag
Sous vide circulator
Large pot
Small pot
Large bowl
Whisk
Wok or deep fryer
Slotted spoon
Metal grate and baking sheet
Paper towels
Tongs
Method:
For the pickled onions:
Set the sous vide circulator to 185F/85C in a large pot of water.
Add the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for ten minutes.
Peel and slice onions, making sure to remove the film between each layer of the onion as you push out the rings (it should slide right off).
Add the spices and onions to the Zip-lock bag. Pour the warm brine into the bag.
Immerse the bag into the bath and use the pressure of the water to remove any excess air and seal the bag. Use a clip to hold the bag to the side of the large pot.
Cook the onion rings for 30 minutes.
Prepare an ice bath. When the 30 minutes are up, place the Zip-lock bag into the ice bath to stop the cooking and cool the pickled onion rings.
Zach Johnston
For the onion rings:
Combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beer while whisking until you get a thin batter (sort of halfway between a crepe and pancake batter).
Lay the onion rings on a paper towel and pat dry.
Heat about one-half gallon of neutral oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed pot (I used sunflower) to 375F/190C.
Using tongs, dip the rings into the batter and then gently lay them into the hot oil, creating a single layer of onion rings.
After about one minute, flip the rings with the tongs to brown them evenly on both sides.
After another minute, remove the onion rings to a rack over a baking sheet. Immediately hit with a pinch of salt.
Repeat until all the rings are fried.
Serve with aioli dip.
Bottom Line:
Zach Johnston
I love fried pickle chips, so I knew I was going to love these. And, wow, thank you, Lorde, for turning me onto pickled onion rings. These are, hands down, some of the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted. And they were without a doubt the #1 best rings I’ve ever made. The onion was soft and hot with a deep pickle brine that had a touch of heat and acidity. The sweetness was there but tied more to the onion than sugar. Really though, the sweetness took a back seat to the overall brininess of the onion.
The batter was freaking sensational. The addition of corn starch allowed the batter to be super crunchy on the outside while still feeling supple on the inside. Moreover, as these rings cooled down (onion rings always get cold too fast), the batter stayed super crunchy.
Zach Johnston
Using aioli as a dipping sauce is a win as well (I used some good stuff from Spain). The lemon/garlic/mayo feel was the perfect counterpoint to the pickle brine and crunchy batter of the ring. This was comfort food in its purest form.
Finally, there was the side-by-side look of these rings compared to Lorde’s. You can judge for yourself below. I haven’t tasted my competition, but I do know that this is the only way I’ll be making onion rings from here on out. Lorde, if you’re ever near Uproxx’s offices — we got you.
